When Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder moved his defamation suit against the Washington City Paper from New York to Washington late last month, the newspaper’s attorneys cried SLAPP. Strategic lawsuit aimed at public participation, that is.
First coined by University of Denver law professors in the late 1980s, SLAPPs are defined as lawsuits brought with the express purpose of chilling protected speech. According to anti-SLAPP advocates, such suits are a form of financial bullying, designed to drain a defendant’s pocketbook until they cease the speech in question.
